Chargers trying to figure out offensive line on the fly ahead of stiff test from Steelers

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Under the best of circumstances, Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert would be facing a tough test from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ powerful pass rush on Sunday night.

Being without a proven starting left tackle after Joe Alt suffered a season-ending high ankle sprain last week will make things that much more difficult.

“As long as the season is, and as much adversity as we might deal with, the mission never stops,” Herbert said.

The Chargers (6-3) had big expectations coming into the year that the pairing of Rashawn Slater and Alt would drive one of the best offensive lines in football. But Slater tore his patellar tendon in August, and now Alt is done after sustaining a second injury to his right ankle in a 27-20 win at the Tennessee Titans.

That leaves Los Angeles choosing from four players in Trey Pipkins III, Austin Deculus, Jamaree Salyer and Trevor Penning to fill its two tackle spots against the Steelers (5-3).

Penning started practicing with the Chargers on Wednesday after being acquired from New Orleans at the trade deadline on Tuesday, going from one of the worst teams in the NFL to another pushing for the playoffs.

"Pretty crazy overnight, you know, you get five more wins, so it’s pretty crazy,” Penning said.

Penning was a first-round pick by the Saints in 2022 and has experience at right tackle and left guard. He also played left tackle in college at Northern Iowa. His first day with the Chargers had him working at both left tackle and right tackle to give the coaching staff a sense of where he might fit best.

“It’s definitely challenging at first,” Penning said. “It’s like writing backwards. You’re writing with your left hand versus your right hand, so it just takes time, a lot of work at it.”

Whichever two tackles get to start will have to deal with a Pittsburgh defense that seems to be coming together after an uncharacteristic start, getting five sacks in a 27-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Edge rushers T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith combined for three sacks and two forced fumbles.

The Steelers kept the NFL’s highest-scoring offense in check by forcing the Colts into six turnovers, including five from Indianapolis quarterback Daniel Jones. Beyond the takeaways, however, Pittsburgh’s 30th-ranked defense believes it took a significant step forward after getting torched recently by Green Bay’s Jordan Love and Cincinnati’s Joe Flacco.

Taking a simpler approach helped. A season-ending knee injury to safety DeShon Elliott forced Pittsburgh to keep versatile Jalen Ramsey exclusively at one safety position, with newly acquired Kyle Dugger at the other safety spot. The result was less confusion and fewer mistakes, something the Steelers believe is sustainable in a way creating a half-dozen turnovers on a weekly basis is not.

“Coach Tomlin is always saying you get turnovers when you’re fundamentally sound and in the right spot,” cornerback Joey Porter Jr. said. “I feel like a lot of players were in the right spot last week.”

Tomlin felt Pittsburgh caught a break in last season’s 20-10 win over Los Angeles as Herbert was knocked out of the game in the third quarter with the score tied at 10 after aggravating a high ankle sprain.

“It allowed us to do some things schematically that you’re somewhat hesitant to do if he has full mobility,” Tomlin said. “I think it nailed him down in the pocket some and probably limited some of the things they choose to do schematically."

The Steelers saw a full-strength Herbert in 2021 when he had 382 yards passing, 90 yards rushing and threw a game-winning 53-yard touchdown in a wild 41-37 victory for the Chargers.

Nine different players have caught touchdown passes this season for Pittsburgh, and eight different players have at least 100 yards receiving. No other team in the NFL checks both of those boxes. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ decision-making and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s creative personnel groups and never-ending shifts and motions have compensated for the lack of a true No. 2 receiver to put opposite DK Metcalf.

Metcalf, who is on pace for just 61 receptions, believes he’ll find more space going forward as Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson and tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith become more productive.

“Jonnu, Calvin, (defenses) got to honor those guys sooner or later,” Metcalf said.

Both Tomlin and Rodgers expressed their appreciation for veteran Chargers safety Derwin James Jr., with Tomlin calling him “just the straw that stirs the drink for them.”

“He plays high safety, the half-field safety, quarter safety, big nickel, dime linebacker,” Rodgers said. “He can do it all. I mean, he’s one of the top players in the league, and he can do it in multiple positions. He can blitz, he can cover, he can tackle. I mean, he’s one of the more impressive players you see on film.”

AP Sports Writer Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

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Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) is sacked by Tennessee Titans linebacker Jihad Ward (53) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Derrick Harmon (99) celebrates a fumble recovery against the Indianapolis Colts during the second half of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Los Angeles Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. (3) shakes hands with fans as he walks off the field after a win over the Tennessee Titans in an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith (56) forces a fumble by Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (17) during the second half of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) is sacked by Tennessee Titans linebacker Jihad Ward (53) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

MILAN (AP) — Milan’s storied Teatro alla Scala celebrates its gala season premiere Sunday with a Russian opera for the second time since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But this year, instead of drawing protests for showcasing the invader’s culture, a flash mob will demonstrate for peace.

La Scala’s music director Riccardo Chailly will conduct Dmitry Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” for the gala season opener that draws luminaries from culture, business and politics for one of the most anticipated events of the European cultural calendar.

Shostakovich's 1934 opera highlights the condition of women in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and was blacklisted just days after the communist leader saw a performance in 1936, the threshold year of his campaign of political repression known as the Great Purge.

The Italian liberal party +Europa announced a demonstration outside the theater as dignitaries arrive “to draw attention to the defense of liberty and European democracy, threatened today by Putin’s Russia, and to support the Ukrainian people.’’

The party underlined that Shostakovich's opera exposes the abuse of power and the role of personal resistance.

Due to security concerns, authorities moved the protest from the square facing La Scala, to another behind City Hall.

Chailly began working with Russian stage director Vasily Barkhatov on the title about two years ago, following the 2022 gala season premiere of the Russian opera “Boris Godunov,” which was attended by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, both of whom separated Russia’s politicians from its culture.

But outside the Godunov premiere, Ukrainians protested against highlighting Russian culture during a war rooted in the denial of a unique Ukrainian culture. The Ukrainian community did not announce any separate protests this year.

Chailly called the staging of Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth" at La Scala for just the fourth time “a must.’’

“It is an opera that has long suffered, and needs to make up for lost time,’’ Chailly told a news conference last month.

La Scala’s new general manager, Fortunato Ortombina, defended the choices made by his predecessor to stage both Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth” and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov " at the theater best known for its Italian repertoire, but which has in recent years showcased other traditions.

‘‘Music is fundamentally superior to any ideological conflict,’’ Ortombina said on the sidelines of the press conference. “Shostakovich, and Russian music more broadly, have an authority over the Russian people that exceeds Putin's own.’’

American soprano Sara Jakubiak is making her La Scala debut in the title role of Katerina, whose struggle against existential repression leads her to commit murder, landing her in a Siberian prison where she dies. It’s the second time Jakubiak has sung the role, after performances in Barcelona last year, and she said Shostakovich's Katerina is full of challenges.

“That I’m a murderess, that I’m singing 47 high B flats in one night, you know, all these things,’’ Jakubiak said while sitting in the makeup chair ahead of the Dec. 4 preview performance to an audience of young people. “You go, ‘Oh my gosh, how will I do this?’ But you manage, with the right kind of work, the right team of people. Yes, we’re just going to go for the ride.”

Speaking to journalists recently, Chailly joked that he was “squeezing” Jakubiak like an orange. Jakubiak said she found common ground with the conductor known for his studious approach to the original score and composer’s intent.

“Whenever I prepare a role, it’s always the text and the music and the text and the rhythms,'' she said. “First, I do this process with, you know, a cup of coffee at my piano and then we add the other layers and then the notes. So I guess we’re actually somewhat similar in that regard.''

Jakubiak, best known for Strauss and Wagner, has a major debut coming in July when she sings her first Isolde in concert with Anthony Pappano and the London Symphony.

Barkhatov, who has a flourishing international career, called the choice of “Lady Macbeth,” “very brave and exciting.”

Barkhatov's stage direction sets the opera in a cosmopolitan Russian city in the 1950s, the end of Stalin’s regime, rather than a 19th-century rural village as written for the 1930s premier.

For Barkhatov, Stalin’s regime defines the background of the story and the mentality of the characters for a story he sees as a personal tragedy and not a political tale. Most of the action unfolds inside a restaurant appointed in period Art Deco detail, with a rotating balustrade creating a kitchen, a basement and an office where interrogations take place.

Despite the tragic arc, Barkhatov described the story as “a weird … breakthrough to happiness and freedom.’’

“Sadly, the statistics show that a lot of people die on their way to happiness and freedom,’’ he added.

Stage director Vasily Barkhatov sits during an interview with The Associated Press prior to the dressed rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A wig receives final touches ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A wig receives final touches ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

External view of Teatro all Scala ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Soprano Sara Jakubiak has her makeup done ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

The stage is prepared ahead of the dressed rehearsal of the Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, by Dmitri Shostakovich, at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)